Pages

Thursday, July 22, 2010

first summer essential finished!

A little late in the game - but it isn't August yet! ;-) Still, I finished my first Summer Essential, a slightly swirly polka-dot jersey skirt. This was supposed to be a very quick and easy, instant-gratification project, though it really didn't turn out that way. I actually started with a different Summer Essential project first, a knit tank top and shorts, to get a feel for the type of fabric. I traced all thee garments off of existing clothes I already own and cut them out. Then I put one of my brand-new ballpoint needles and a dark blue thread into the machine and started sewing. Then all hell began.

I won't get into deatils again, suffice to say that my difficulties almost put me off of sewing (or at least sewing with knits) forever. Also, I almost spur-of-the-moment-bought a new used sewing machine from ebay because I thought mine was broken and I wanted to sew, now! Ah well. Luckily, the lovely Ali wrote a post about sewing with knits, which mentioned that universal needles were just as good (or better) for knit fabric as the ballpoint ones. So I put my trusty old needle-that-came-with-the-machine in an - whooohooo! - everything worked perfectly again. Turns out my ballpoint needles seemed to be a fraction longer than the normal ones, resulting in lots of torn thread and lost stitches...

So I finished my skirt, and while it's just about as far from perfect as possible while still being remotely wearable, I like it and it feels very comfy and summery. I'll probably buy some more of this fabric (or some similar one in red or green) and sew this skirt up again - maybe hem it with some nice red satin bias tape, to make it pop a little more.

I did learn some things on this, mainly that I still have a lot to learn about sewing with knits and also not to throw your towel too early. And: always hem a (roughly) circle skirt with bias tape (or are there other options that work well?) (Also: I need to find a nicer location to photograph my me-mades...)

So now I'm back in the sewing game and since I've got my very last end-of-term exam tomorrow, I might just succeed in finishing my summer essentials by the beginning of August... :-)

1 comment:

I'm glad you and your machine are on speaking terms again! Lovely fabric -- that skirt will go with everything and I bet it's so, so comfy. I just bought a mountain of knits and am excited to make knit-everything. Tees and tanks and dresses, oh!

About Me

Sewing with a passion when not stuck with my nose in a book or navigating real life as a doctor. The beautiful things in life: friends & family, cooking & eating, coffee & philosophy, painting & photography, theater & music, singing, travels...